The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
Alright, got the rear end in place. Again, nothing is torqued yet since I am anticipating having to make adjustments when the full weight of the car is on the ground. The parts are off the floor though which makes me happy.
The engine/trans dolly I made way back in post #303 came in handy for this job. I really didn't have to do anything to it to accommodate the rear end save for getting an extra pair of spring perches off the shelf and bolting them on to the stanchions to hold the housing in place. Didn't have to weld or drill any holes, nothing. I love it when a plan comes together!
The whole install is pretty straightforward with the right equipment. When I took the thing out I had used my transmission jack to lower it down. Things got pretty sqirrely for a few seconds because it was totally unstable. Having recounted last year's near-death-by-falling-rear-end-experience, I considered building a jig that would bolt to the trans. jack plate but the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to get involved with it. Then the extra spring perch idea hit me and that was all I needed. Easy Peasy.
Also wanted to mention something I absorbed from a chassis guy a long time ago. Back in the mid-90's I took a rear end to a small, racer welding shop to get some new spring perches put on a rear housing. When I picked up the housing the guy gave me two bushings. He said they slide into the perch holes and over the outside of the spring bolt heads. This helps locate the perches over the springs properly so they don't move around. The holes in the middle of leaf spring perches tend to be larger than the bolts that hold the springs together.
Unfortunately I didn't have the bushings like that around anymore so I made some. I found a rusty piece of tubing that probably strated life as an alternator spacer or something. (I have 8 million of them so I figured I could sacrifice one for the job) Plus it's good, old factory steel, not off-shore junk tubing. I set it in my drill press and reamed it to size which did not take much. I cut it down so the pieces were about 3/8" tall. (I need a lathe for things like this - one day) I made them a bit taller in case I need to add pinion shims. Seems to fit OK.
Here's the reamed-out tubing being fit over the leaf sprint bolt and before it was cut down.
I.D. is now 1/2"
Here is the bushing inside the spring perch but the U-bolts are not tight yet.
U-bolts tight now.
Ironically, part of me thinks this exercise may not have been worth the 10 minutes it took to make the bushings. I just wonder if there needs to be a little space around the spring bolt to allow lateral movement and/or prevent binding. Theoretically it seems like a good thing to help keep things square but I'm not 100% sure that it is. Either way, it's a little detail that most people wouldn't even think about and I like them so they're staying.
More to come.
Alright, got the rear end in place. Again, nothing is torqued yet since I am anticipating having to make adjustments when the full weight of the car is on the ground. The parts are off the floor though which makes me happy.
The engine/trans dolly I made way back in post #303 came in handy for this job. I really didn't have to do anything to it to accommodate the rear end save for getting an extra pair of spring perches off the shelf and bolting them on to the stanchions to hold the housing in place. Didn't have to weld or drill any holes, nothing. I love it when a plan comes together!
The whole install is pretty straightforward with the right equipment. When I took the thing out I had used my transmission jack to lower it down. Things got pretty sqirrely for a few seconds because it was totally unstable. Having recounted last year's near-death-by-falling-rear-end-experience, I considered building a jig that would bolt to the trans. jack plate but the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to get involved with it. Then the extra spring perch idea hit me and that was all I needed. Easy Peasy.
Also wanted to mention something I absorbed from a chassis guy a long time ago. Back in the mid-90's I took a rear end to a small, racer welding shop to get some new spring perches put on a rear housing. When I picked up the housing the guy gave me two bushings. He said they slide into the perch holes and over the outside of the spring bolt heads. This helps locate the perches over the springs properly so they don't move around. The holes in the middle of leaf spring perches tend to be larger than the bolts that hold the springs together.
Unfortunately I didn't have the bushings like that around anymore so I made some. I found a rusty piece of tubing that probably strated life as an alternator spacer or something. (I have 8 million of them so I figured I could sacrifice one for the job) Plus it's good, old factory steel, not off-shore junk tubing. I set it in my drill press and reamed it to size which did not take much. I cut it down so the pieces were about 3/8" tall. (I need a lathe for things like this - one day) I made them a bit taller in case I need to add pinion shims. Seems to fit OK.
Here's the reamed-out tubing being fit over the leaf sprint bolt and before it was cut down.
I.D. is now 1/2"
Here is the bushing inside the spring perch but the U-bolts are not tight yet.
U-bolts tight now.
Ironically, part of me thinks this exercise may not have been worth the 10 minutes it took to make the bushings. I just wonder if there needs to be a little space around the spring bolt to allow lateral movement and/or prevent binding. Theoretically it seems like a good thing to help keep things square but I'm not 100% sure that it is. Either way, it's a little detail that most people wouldn't even think about and I like them so they're staying.
More to come.
